31 May 2013

Watching Thunder the other night reminded me that I had not shared my "discovery" of hard blues rock band Albany Down. A friend posted a video of the band on his Facebook page and it immediately appealed so I went off and hunted down the band's back catalogue of two albums, 2010's debut South of the City and this year's Not Over Yet.

Albany Down have that heavy Thunder/Skynyrd/Led Zep blues rock sound to them which is great for some good old fashioned rocking and I have found both albums hugely enjoyable, vocalist Paul Muir is very impressive. Their debut, South of the City, also includes a wonder cover of Duffy's Mercy which is immeasurably better than the original.

All in all, if you like good old school heavy blues rock, Albany Down are well worth checking out. I'm certainly looking forward to trying to catch them live as soon as possible.

30 May 2013

Sunday saw a trip across the border into darkest Wales and a visit to the Motorpoint Arena (that's the Cardiff International Arena to you and me). Journey, Whitesnake and Thunder were in the bill so a great night was promised - and delivered.

The night kicked off at the rather earlier hour of 6.45pm with Thunder blasting onto the stage to AC/DC's Thunderstruck before delivering an impressive set replete with crowd pleasing Thunder classics. They are truly an excellent rock band and it must be the biggest mystery of all time why they didn't become massive. Live, they hit the spot and their 45 minute set was hugely entertaining, if a little too short. I really hope this tour has given Danny Bowes a taste for all things Thunder and the band reform properly and not just for odd gigs.

Thunder, Cardiff International Arena, 26th May 2013

Whitesnake were next and despite having seen odd comments that David Coverdale couldn't sing anymore I was quite impressed. Ok, Coverdale did struggle on a couple of songs when he needed to hit some (very) high notes but with 35 years of material to choose from he stuck mainly to material still within his range. The only negative were the indulgent guitar and drum solos, sooo old school and not in a good way. I don't mind seeing great musical technique but random tub thumping or guitar shredding is a waste of time.

David Coverdale and Whitesnake, Cardiff International Arena, 26th May 2013

Prior to the gig I had read a lot of negative comments about Journey on this tour and that audiences were streaming out after three or four songs. Not so here, indeed the only noticeable difference was that the number of female fans markedly increased! The band launched into a very rocky set, replete with a catalogue of classic tunes that I rather disturbing found I was nearly word perfect on (I don't really count myself as a Journey fan!). The band were pretty tight musically although the drum sound was a little too bassy. I was interested to see how lead signer Arnel Pineda would perform and the reaction he would get. No worries on either score, he is a excellent singer, jumped around like a bouncing bean and his infectious smile ensured he got the loudest cheer of the evening when the band were introduced at the end of the set.

A ticker tape welcome for Journey at Cardiff International Arena, 26th May 2013

Overall a very enjoyable evening with over four hours of classic rock music.